Rossi Interview: “Now we have to concentrate on the mission”

Valentino Rossi chatted exclusively to motogp.com about the 2016 MotoGP™ season at the recent Movistar Yamaha Team launch in Barcelona.

Valentino, after such an incredible end to last season and missing out on the title by such a small margin, have you managed to relax and rest at all?
“Yes it was a difficult period after the last race because it was very bad, but in the end, when two or three weeks have passed, it remains a good season. I was always there with a high performance, and I was always fighting for the Championship. For this reason you cannot be too desperate. Now we start another one, it is like starting from zero and time to start looking to the future.”

This will be your 21st season in the World Championships, how hard is it to dust yourself and get ready to do it all again?
“Yes it is difficult, sincerely, but I have the passion and I have still the motivation to continue because I still love it. It all depends also on the results, as I have to be competitive. It is good this moment of the season as you always have that feeling - the moment of excitement for the new bike - so it is always interesting.”

There are a raft of changes for 2016, who do you think it will effect you and who will be your biggest rival this season?
“For me, first of all I have to modify the way to ride the bike, as the tyres are quite different. All the riders have to be clever and fast to adapt to the new style. I think that my rivals will remain more or less the same, but I think the Satellite teams and the other manufacturers will be a lot closer so there will be more fighting. Afterwards we will see, we have a lot of work to because at the end of last year we concentrated very much to finish the season in the right way. Now we have to concentrate on the mission.”

Can you lift that elusive tenth World Championship in 2016?
“I don’t know, it will be difficult! For me it is always difficult, my aim is to be as fast as I can and fight for victory like I did last year.”